The "Art" School is Dead

[faberryman]

And who are you or anyone else here to say what is art? Even the so-called experts, curators, gallerists and critics can't do that. History may be the only authority on the subject. So let's fire up the time machine.

Does anyone really want to discuss "What is art?" It will just be a replay of people blurting out the first thing that pops into their head and expecting to be taken seriously.

[Michael R]

I really want to write something about this but I'll just bite my keyboard.

[jnantz]

And who are you or anyone else here to say what is art? Even the so-called experts, curators, gallerists and critics can't do that. History may be the only authority on the subject. So let's fire up the time machine.

obviously you didn't get the memo, that comment was a JOKE, I think the expression is a "waste of bandwidth". it ends up like "its only art if its made by a human and displaying his interaction with the cosmos and the medium and the human condition" or "its only art if it's a landscape or portrait or (fill in the blanks ) and no machine, AI interaction, computer interface or corporate made help had anything to do with it."
whatever...

[Pieter]

obviously you didn't get the memo, that comment was a JOKE, I think the expression is a "waste of bandwidth". it ends up like "its only art if its made by a human and displaying his interaction with the cosmos and the medium and the human condition" or "its only art if it's a landscape or portrait or (fill in the blanks ) and no machine, AI interaction, computer interface or corporate made help had anything to do with it."
whatever...

Just adding fuel to the fire.

[reddesert]

I don't think one goes to expensive art school to be a famous artist. I mean, maybe that is one's ambition, but most graduates aren't going to become famous artists, just like most football players don't go to the pros, most scientists don't become Nobel Prize winners, most lawyers don't become Supreme Court judges. However, I think a lot of art school graduates became commercial artists, graphic artists, art teachers, other professions that work in the "art business" (including commercial art as well as fine art). Unfortunately, there are fewer opportunities to work in the art trades, for the same reasons that are affecting all of the creative or content-making professions (music, writing, etc): automation, digital reproduction, fewer opportunities for teachers because schools cut art and music from the budget, etc. If you look at today's undergraduates, they're increasingly not majoring in art, or English lit, but something like undergrad business, because it seems more certain and their parents want them to. (It used to be that undergrad business wasn't even a degree most places - you could major in a humanities subject and still go for an MBA.) It is not their fault, but reflects our society's concern chiefly with the bottom line.

What I don't understand, is people who claim to be interested in art, trumpeting this like it was a good development. It's throwing dirt on your own grave as well as that of the art school poseurs.

[faberryman]

What I don't understand, is people who claim to be interested in art, trumpeting this like it was a good development. It's throwing dirt on your own grave as well as that of the art school poseurs.

Art school poseurs?

[Pieter]

Art school poseurs?

Would that be the life-drawing models?

[Kevin Crisp]

Good one.

[rdenney]

Maybe we should ask ChatGPT to define art.

For me, art is any expression intended as such, and accepted by somebody—anybody—as such.

I suspect most in art schools are there because that’s what they feel compelled to pursue. Same as with musicians. Maybe that compulsion arises from the inability to think of anything better to do, and maybe it won a tough competition with lots of other potentially successful pursuits. Surely some people are quite intentionally wasting time in art school, while others are gaining insight after insight.

I spent three years in architecture school, discovering that compulsion did not necessarily correlate to aptitude, or survive to become dedication. But I still learned stuff, a lot of it about art. The art component was about half of my transcript—the half that didn’t count—when I switched to engineering. I studied photography, life drawing, art history, painting, and a range of design labs. I don’t regret any of it. I cannot say, however, that I gained insight after insight.

And I still struggle to find somebody—anybody—to appreciate what I intend as art as such.

Rick “not lacking self-awareness” Denney

[Tin Can]

I studied Improv in Chicago but only watched from the sidelines

1980's

I was a fool to not walk on stage

I thought I was too old

Comedy, Dance, Song, War are all ART